Solid erection masturbating using imagination?

I think that's a very good sign. Good luck with that. In my opinion, masturbation to fantasies is an act of good help. It helps the flow of the blood in your veins.

 

Masturbating to fantasies, especially memories of being with a partner, is the best way to masturbate to avoid the pitfalls of PMO. The fact that you became hard without touching yourself, and then began masturbating, is a sign that your brain is returning to normal function.

However, ED is defined as not having the ability to have successful PIV sex. Masturbating does not mean you are cured. You have to try having sex to see how your progress is going.

I would not recommending masturbating for at least 8 months after a reboot, and instead only use sex as your sexual outlet.

 

I'd consider this as a loss. You should test your erection with a real girl, not with your hand.

 

If you can keep your Johnnie up in a real encounter with a woman, that'd be surely a concrete sign of overcoming PIED. Still, it's a big success nonetheless. So keep up the good work and stay safe.

 

Not really. By masturbating you loose all the real physiological benefits, you don't get more energy or drive, you don't get extra motivation, you technically don't get nothing. If i have to drain some of my energy i prefer it to be for a good reason, like being with a girl for example. Otherwise is all energy wasted.

 

@phwrancesco

While masturbation without porn is really not that harmful, it definitely does not help in recovering from porn addiction and PIED.

Masturbation on it’s own is a perfectly healthy and safe activity. In the past, masturbating with non-digital pornographic material did not seem to affect it’s users that greatly.

However, after years of heavy PMO, masturbation, even on it’s own, becomes a harmful activity. Even though you’re not watching porn, masturbation “refreshes” the neurons in your brain wired to porn. It doesn’t cement these porn neurons as if watching porn, but masturbation definitely does not help makes these porn neurons go away.

Masturbation should not be seen as win when recovering from porn. It varies from person to person, but one should probably refrain from masturbation for several months after their reboot. During this time, the brain is dying of stimulation, and it is more beneficial to spend your time socializing and having sexual relations with women. This will push porn out of your mind, and allow you to develop a healthy sexual lifestyle, with masturbation possibly in the future.

 

Yea totally agree. Let me explain my point on this, or at least how i decided to take this journey: since i'm doing something big for my life, i'm doing it at the best of my chances.

That's why one day i quitted PM for good and never looked back. I was single, haven't had sex for the past 5 years, so i was kinda in a dark place.

However i decided to put all my effort in this journey and i can easily say that if i would have allowed to masturbate some here and there i'd probably not pushed my body and my mind to it's limits, and all the amazing changes i had in my life would never have happened.

This 20th April is my 3d anniversary of starting Nofap and only relapsed once. What i have achieved in my life since then and my grown as a man is seriously hard to describe.

 

Like I said before, masturbation is a perfectly healthy activity.

However, during the earlier stages of recovery, it 100% slows you down. During your reboot, masturbation is extremely discouraged against, just like sex, which is the actual goal you're working towards. Once you have a healthy sex life going, masturbation is okay, but one shouldn't be making excuses for it.

YBOP does not demonize masturbation, but since it is so closely tied to porn use in many aspects (socially isolating, anxiety-easing, self-pleasure), it should be avoided.

I would only recommend masturbation to someone who does not have any PIED, has sex consistently, but is only getting sex once every 2+ weeks. Of course, you should only be using imagination, only doing so in a similar frequency to sex with a partner, and never forcing it.

What stimuli must I avoid during my reboot (did I relapse)?

Are there any guidelines for healthy masturbation?

How do I masturbate without porn?

 

To recover from PIED, there are two main periods: the reboot and rewire. I don't think I've seen someone take 2 years to recover from PIED, especially at your age.

The first period is the reboot, and takes about 90 days. You don't watch any porn/arousing media, you don't allow yourself to be sexually/sensually stimulated, and you don't orgasm. It basically flushes away all the porn neurons in your brain's sexual reward centers by starving them of any type of stimulation. With no stimulation, the neurons die off, leaving your brain's sexual reward centers blank.

The next period is the rewiring. In this time, you avoid PMO while you begin to have sex with real women. At first, you will not be 100% hard, you will not feel maximum pleasure, you will likely not finish when you have sex, and you will have major post-orgasmic symptoms. However, every time you have sex, you create neurons in your brain which positively associate with sex and real women. Over time, you will get a bigger response from sex, and you will desire it more. After a few months, you should be at full sexual capacity, with 100% boners, great feeling, finishing time from PIV in less than 10 minutes, and little to none post-orgasmic symptoms.

It is unfortunate for me to tell you that you probably have not been following the right steps for getting rid of PIED. The most effective solution is to do a hardmode reboot and then rewire for several months. For me, this all took less than 6 months. I went from being able to get 20% boners with a girl's mouth on my dick to having sex with a full boner 4 times in one week, while going for 2-3 times per night. This path worked for me, it works for thousands of guys, and it is the path recommended by Your Brain on Porn. I'll link to their site for you to read up on.

The best tool for me in conquering my affliction is knowing what is happening to me, and the steps I had to take to stop it. Research as much as you can on YBOP to get this info, and get to work.

Overview

Porn FAQs

Are my sexual problems (ED, DE, low libido) related to my porn use?

Started young on Internet porn and my recovery from erectile dysfunction is taking too long.

Why is intermittent use (long abstinence with binges) an addiction risk?

Research confirms enormous rise in youthful ED

What do experts tell young guys suffering from ED (the good & the bad)

rebooting basics page

Do I have to have sex in order to rewire?

What benefits do people see as they reboot?

What stimuli must I avoid during my reboot (did I relapse)?

Will stopping porn solve my problems?

 

Alright man. I'm sorry you've been having trouble with this, but you're not fighting a disease like cancer. Your outcomes ultimately boil down to your choices, no matter how hard they may be.

The answers to your problems are already laid out. Thousands of other have been down the same exact path as you and succeeded. We all know how hard it is.

I remember around like day 10 or something, I literally had hallucinations for several hours about this one fetish that had taken over my life. I ran for about 4 hours that day to tire myself out, yet I still went to sleep with my mind full of horrible thoughts and temptations.

You can make it through. Plenty of other guys in much worse situations have before you.

It's also important to remember that you need to remove a sexual lifestyle based on porn and masturbation, and instill one filled with relationships and real sex. Binging once a month on porn and masturbation, especially if you don't have a long term partner, is not going to help you at all.

While their is a lot of (sometimes overwhelming and confusing) advice on YBOP, some of their messages are explicitly clear:

• Porn is not good, so don't do it (Overview)
• Binging after long periods probably makes your condition worse (Why is intermittent use (long abstinence with binges) an addiction risk?
• Masturbation is healthy in moderation, but taking a break is close to completely necessary for recovering from porn (Masturbation & Ejaculation Articles)
• NoFap is an important step from recovering from porn addiciton, but developing a healthy sexual lifestyle with a partner(s) is necessary for recovery (Will stopping porn solve my problems?)

Stop giving yourself leeway and just complete the mission. You're no different from anyone else, so you can do it just like everyone else.

 

Ok dude if you know that somewhere in the 2-4 week period you get crazy urges that have caused you to fail multiple times in the past, YOU NEED TO PLAN FOR THAT.

This isn't your first rodeo. If you always relapse in the same way, you need to change up what you're doing. My suggestions would be:

• schedule a lot of things with other people during that period
  • I know we're in quarantine, but phone calls, stream party nights, and online games are great alternatives in my experience
• exercise every day, especially with running
  • not only does this tire you out, it also removes a lot of blood and tension from your pelvic area, which helps make people less horny
• if you can, try to be in a public or semi-public environment
  • seeing people helps ease tension that may cause horniness, and with ppl present, you obviously cannot PMO
  • sleeping in the living room is another good alternative

There are plenty of other things you can do.

All I'm saying though that if you are failing the same way every time, you have to do something different. You know what's coming, so make a plan to deal with it.

No one succeeds on their first time with NoFap, but everyone learns from their mistakes when recovering.